自行車公開賽歷史
The race was founded as a publicity1 event for the newspaper L'Auto by its editor and co-founder, Henri Desgrange, to rival the Paris-Brest et retour ride , and Bordeaux-Paris. The idea for a round-France stage race is also credited to one of his journalists, Go Lefvre, with whom Desgrange had lunch at the Caf de Madrid in Paris on 20 November 1902). Promotion2 of the Tour de France certainly proved a great success for the newspaper; circulation leapt from 25,000 before the 1903 Tour to 65,000 after it; in 1908 the race boosted circulation past a quarter of a million, and during the 1923 Tour it was selling 500,000 copies a day. The record circulation claimed by Desgrange was 854,000, achieved during the 1933 Tour. Today, the Tour is organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation3 , part of the media group that owns l'?quipe.
The tour is a stage race, pided into a number of stages, each stage being a race held over one day. Although the number of stages has varied4 in the past, recently the tour has consisted of around 20 stages, with a total length of between 3,000 and 4,000 km.
Most stages take place in France though it is very common to have a few stages in nearby countries, such as Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, but also non-neighbouring countries such as the Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
The three weeks usually includes two rest days, which are sometimes used to transport the riders long distances between stages.
In recent years, the first stage is preceded by a short inpidual time trial , called the prologue5. The traditional finish is in Paris on the Champs-?lyses. In between, various stages occur, including a number of mountain stages, inpidual time trials and a team time trial. The remaining stages are held over relatively6 flat terrain7. With the variety of stages, sprinters may win stages, but the overall winner is almost always a master of the mountain stages and time trials.
The itinerary8 of the race changes each year; however, some of the visited places, especially mountains and passes, recur9 almost annually10 and are famous on their own. The most famous mountains are those in the hors-categorie , including the Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux, Col du Galibier, the Hautacam and Alpe d'Huez. Although the tour is often won in the mountain stages, the length and variety of terrain ensures that only an all-round rider could possibly win the race.
Other major stage races include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espa?a . The Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Cycling Championship comprise the Triple Crown of Cycling.
一年一度的環法自行車賽是現在世界上規模最大、比賽路線最長的公路自行車越野比賽，也是歐洲國家一系列公路自行車比賽中歷史最悠久的比賽。它是由法國自行車運動員、記者亨利德格朗熱于1903年發起創辦的。當年7月1日舉行的第一屆環法自行車賽只有60名選手參賽。比賽全程2428公里，歷時19天。其后，每一屆環法自行車賽都在每年7月舉行，參賽選手漸漸增多，并且有海量來自世界各國的職業自行車運動員參加，賽程延長至4000公里左右，包含平地和山路，路程一般要遍布法國各地，有時也延伸到鄰國，終點均為法國首都巴黎的香榭麗舍大街。比賽分段計時，各段累計時間最少者獲勝。
伴隨環法自行車賽的聲勢不斷擴大，比賽的困難程度不斷增大，其影響不斷擴大，吸引了愈加多的法國人和歐洲一些國家的人沿路觀看，法國主要電視臺天天都進行報道或實況轉播。比賽沖刺之日，香榭麗舍大街更是人山人海，如盛大節日一般。